Offering truth beyond the mere black and white.
"Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will." -- Antonio Gramsci"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." -- John Kenneth Galbraith"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Trump will accept election results -- if he wins! LOL

The day after his now-forever-infamous "suspense" debate answer, Trump decided to appear before a gaggle of supporters and not try to awkwardly walk-back what he said less than 24 hours ago. No, instead he forged ahead by offering a lame joke as means of doubling down on his incredibly dumb comment. Booya! You go boy!

As if anything more has to be said about this guy at this point, I can't help but say a few things.

For one, this oft-mentioned Al Gore comparison is ludicrous. I'm fairly certain that if Gore was asked in October 2000 if he would fully accept the outcome of the upcoming election, he would've looked perplexed and said, "Why of course! I'm not sure why you're even asking that question...." Duh! No one knew Florida and hanging chads would soon become a huge issue, but that's not the point Donald! On principal, every presidential candidate must say pre-election that they will accept the election result, period. Done. Then, if in fact there is a close call, like 2000, you can contest and go through the process -- as Al Gore did. But that's post-election. Pre-election you clearly state you trust our electoral process and the result. You don't say it depends, or I'll let you know then, or I wish to leave you in suspense.

And for Trump to stupidly suggest that if he were to say otherwise and thus relinquish his right to contest a close vote is just absurd. So let me understand, according to his "logic," every presidential candidate going back beyond Lincoln should have been reserving their right to contest by refusing to affirm publicly that they would fully accept the election result...? Oh, okay, I get it.

The saddest part is his supporters hear this crap and applaud. No thinking, no reasoning, just wild approval.

But back to this day-after attempt at a joke concerning his doubting the election result. What's truly not funny is how we quickly forget that not long ago Trump shocked us by making references to his penis and hands size in a Republican debate. At the time, this was absolutely shocking, to hear any aspiring presidential candidate "go there" with tasteless innuendo and juvenile behavior. Yet he has since topped himself over and over again to the point where looking back, that incident is no longer shocking, not even remotely! Which in itself is shocking (and disturbing, and sad). Can you imagine four years of this?! The continual lowering of the bar?

So after the "suspense" debate comment, which Hillary rightly described as "horrifying," next day Trump decides to work it into a pathetic joke. His supporters in the crowd laugh and cheer, he laps it up, smiling and pointing at the crowd. This is funny? To not just state your distrust for our electoral process, but then to several hours later decide to go further and make a joke about it? As opposed to offering a mea culpa of sorts, even mildly?

Look, Trump's temperament and judgement have justifiably been questioned, but to me his decision to tell a joke about one of the most outrageous statements ever uttered in a presidential debate says it all. Is this someone who should be in the White House, someone who will say or do something completely out of the norm, and then follow it up with a bad "psych!" one-liner joke?! It's one thing for a president to appear on Jimmy Fallon and tell jokes and be funny, but this is a serious subject, our electoral process, our 200+ year history as a democracy, and Trump decides to follow-up on his "horrifying" quotes the night before by deciding to do stand-up.

This to me is what's horrifying. To not just say something reprehensible, but then after given many hours to think about it, to instead decide to double down by reaffirming it, with a joke no less.

Every president has made mistakes when speaking, some more than others (read: GW), it goes with the territory. But Trump misspeaks all the time, and seemingly knowingly (which makes it not misspeak!), and worse he doubles down and presses it further, digging the hole deeper. Doing so out of sheer spite and ego.

As president, I shudder to wonder what would be the end result(s) of such a personality trait. Truly scary.